A multi-billion pound plan to operate, maintain and renew Network Rail’s vast London North Eastern and East Midlands (LNE&EM) route has been published.

The plan will bring a whole host of benefits including contributing to economic growth and helping to create jobs and housing by delivering a railway that meets the needs of the economies and communities our railway serves. As a result, the railway will be more reliable, more cost efficient, will have more capacity and will build on its reputation as the safest railway in Europe.

Network Rail recently published its ambitious five-year plan to improve Britain’s railway over the five years to 2024 (Control Period 6, CP6).  

The London North Eastern and East Midlands route – which serves from the Scottish Border to London King’s Cross and Sheffield to St Pancras – plans to use its multi-billion pound settlement to improve reliability, safety and train performance.

The plan will:

• Reduce service affecting infrastructure failures by 9.9 per cent
• Improve workforce safety by 74 per cent
• Build upon our already close working relationships with TOC’s with the creation of a further joint business plan.
• Enable third party investment in the railway to be easier, faster and more customer focussed

Rob McIntosh, managing director for LNE&EM, said: “I am determined that CP6 will be the dawn of a new era on the UK rail network. Our route is creating real momentum towards maximising the transformative opportunities that CP6 presents us, building on the challenges in CP5 to deliver a safer and more reliable railway for our colleagues, customers and passengers.

“We are already delivering our maintenance more efficiently than ever before; train delay minutes attributed to the route and the number of performance affecting incidents is lower than they have ever been, and we must continue to improve the safety of our railway as the traffic and passenger numbers grow.”